Video features University of Nottingham chemistry professor Martyn Poliakoff from within the world's second largest gold repository at the Bank of England, which protects approximately $315 billion in gold bars, according to recent figures.

Reader Comments (4)

"The Bundesbank is, of course, quite right in its opinion of the value of the examinations. In reality, it does not matter one bit whether the Federal Reserve Bank of New York actually has the German central bank’s gold or whether the gold is pure. As long as the Fed says it is there, it is as good as there for all practical purposes to which it might be put. It can be sold, leased out, used as collateral, employed to extinguish liabilities and counted as bank capital just the same whether it exists or not."

Drilled for tungsten? No need for conspiracy-driven invasiveness like that, is there? For God's sake, the inspection was conducted by a professor of chemistry! Nothing to assay, er, see here. Move along...

SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures declined during Asia trading hours Tuesday, giving back most of the previous session’s gains as caution set in ahead of a policy meeting at the U.S. Federal Reserve.